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Fake News Hit The Gold Market; Here's What The Data Actually Shows

In recent weeks, gold and silver have come under short-term pressure as markets reprice around firmer yields, a stronger dollar and renewed energy-market risk. For gold, this looks less like a change in the long-term thesis and more like tactical weakness against a still-supportive central bank backdrop. 

This is the backdrop to our latest GoldCore TV video, “Fake News Hit The Gold Market.”

This week, a story spread claiming the Reserve Bank of India had sold around $12 billion of gold reserves to defend the rupee during market stress. The story was false. India’s official fact-checking unit rejected it, the RBI denied it and the data showed India’s physical gold holdings were unchanged.

The more interesting point is that the story was believable enough to travel quickly. That tells us something about gold’s role today. A decade ago, a central bank trimming gold might have looked like routine reserve management. Today, it reads as a distress signal, suggesting pressure, vulnerability and the need for liquidity.

This change in mindset and media coverage comes as the broader reserve picture is changing. The European Central Bank’s latest data shows gold occupying a much larger share of global central bank reserves than a year ago. Central banks have had every opportunity to sell into a strong market, take profits and rotate back into traditional reserve assets.

Instead, many are holding, some are still buying and others are bringing gold home.

In the video, we look at the India rumour, the ECB reserve data and recent central bank buying figures to explain where gold now sits in the global financial system, and why short-term price moves should not be confused with the longer-term shift underway.

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